I Got Paid for This
A friend of mine was crazy enough to decide that I should make her her formal dress. ;) It used this Butterick pattern. In many ways it was a pain - it uses annoying slippery satin material (crepe-back satin), the instructions do not necessarily tell you the best way to do it (I followed them because I thought they might be right, but I had to make some adjustments afterwards), I used plastic boning stuff as recommened. I thought the plastic boning - although not suitable for corsets as everyone knows - might be ok for the purpose for which it is intended and recommended - close-fitting strapless tops. It is not, it is pretty terrible. I wouldn't recommend it.
Anyway, in the end she liked it, and it was not too awful, but there are many things that I wish were different or better, if only I had known. At some point I may have pictures of her in it, but for now I have pictures on the mannequin. Not all were taken when it was actually finished and aren't in order in that respect.
The front view. We added little black ribbon straps because she kept pulling it up in the last trying-on before it was finished. And constantly adjusting one's clothing does not create a glamorous image!
The front closer. One of the main problems with the instructions was that you ended up with the boning sewn to the lining and the top and middle layers only attached to the lining along the top and bottom edges. This would seem to make sense, perhaps. It wrinkles tonnes when worn by a person and I thought that this might be because of the lack of direct attachment of the top layer to the stiffening bones, so I sewed all three layers together down the front seams. The next time she tried it on it was way better and nothing else had changed so I guess this was why. The reason I didn't do it earlier is that the boning was (recommended to be) sewn on directly over the lining seams so you actually had to push it aside a little when sewing along the seams because you can't really sew through the bones.
The back. Not a great picture. On the person, it does close enough so the modesty panel doesn't stick up like that, but still has lots of visible lacing so it looks cool. She really liked the back. Note that the pattern does not actually put boning along where the laces attach (whereas I did), which would make it crinkle up a lot there, because that's what lacing does. Note it doesn't do that in the picture on the pattern however. Hmmmm, magic.
The side. In the pattern, it is in fact sewn up right at the top so that you don't need a double ended zip. However, this seems to make it next to impossible to get on and off, so we had it open-up all down the side. But there are a very limited number of zip sizes if you don't want a big chunky one, so it was quite short, so we ended up with hook and eyes above and below. Luckily it looked pretty good.
The skirt back. The colour's all wrong in the photo, but you can see the hand sewn tacking on the pleats that I decided to leave in because it looked cool. Her mother liked it too.
The lace. This is the lace we were going to put on it, but then we decided not to. It didn't really work after all.
The hem. Once again, the pattern suggested some tacking that I left in. It said to sew around near the bottom of the hem, and I thought it looked cool and helped hold it nicely. Also, you can't really take those stitches out of this kind of material. I really like the effect though. You can also just see the hand done prick-stitch holding the hem further up.
Did I mention there wasn't enough material? I had to either get them to buy another 1.2 metres of material (probably costing about $22, just to make that one skirt panel which didn't quite fit) or make something up. I decided to have a second seam on the back mostly hidden by the pleat. I think that was a good idea. It worked out pretty well and was definitely the best of all the options that didn't cost any extra.
I'd really like to make something for this person again and do it better than I did this time. There are many things that I have learnt in just a couple of weeks since making it that would have helped make it even better.
Anyway, in the end she liked it, and it was not too awful, but there are many things that I wish were different or better, if only I had known. At some point I may have pictures of her in it, but for now I have pictures on the mannequin. Not all were taken when it was actually finished and aren't in order in that respect.
The front view. We added little black ribbon straps because she kept pulling it up in the last trying-on before it was finished. And constantly adjusting one's clothing does not create a glamorous image!
The front closer. One of the main problems with the instructions was that you ended up with the boning sewn to the lining and the top and middle layers only attached to the lining along the top and bottom edges. This would seem to make sense, perhaps. It wrinkles tonnes when worn by a person and I thought that this might be because of the lack of direct attachment of the top layer to the stiffening bones, so I sewed all three layers together down the front seams. The next time she tried it on it was way better and nothing else had changed so I guess this was why. The reason I didn't do it earlier is that the boning was (recommended to be) sewn on directly over the lining seams so you actually had to push it aside a little when sewing along the seams because you can't really sew through the bones.
The back. Not a great picture. On the person, it does close enough so the modesty panel doesn't stick up like that, but still has lots of visible lacing so it looks cool. She really liked the back. Note that the pattern does not actually put boning along where the laces attach (whereas I did), which would make it crinkle up a lot there, because that's what lacing does. Note it doesn't do that in the picture on the pattern however. Hmmmm, magic.
The side. In the pattern, it is in fact sewn up right at the top so that you don't need a double ended zip. However, this seems to make it next to impossible to get on and off, so we had it open-up all down the side. But there are a very limited number of zip sizes if you don't want a big chunky one, so it was quite short, so we ended up with hook and eyes above and below. Luckily it looked pretty good.
The skirt back. The colour's all wrong in the photo, but you can see the hand sewn tacking on the pleats that I decided to leave in because it looked cool. Her mother liked it too.
The lace. This is the lace we were going to put on it, but then we decided not to. It didn't really work after all.
The hem. Once again, the pattern suggested some tacking that I left in. It said to sew around near the bottom of the hem, and I thought it looked cool and helped hold it nicely. Also, you can't really take those stitches out of this kind of material. I really like the effect though. You can also just see the hand done prick-stitch holding the hem further up.
Did I mention there wasn't enough material? I had to either get them to buy another 1.2 metres of material (probably costing about $22, just to make that one skirt panel which didn't quite fit) or make something up. I decided to have a second seam on the back mostly hidden by the pleat. I think that was a good idea. It worked out pretty well and was definitely the best of all the options that didn't cost any extra.
I'd really like to make something for this person again and do it better than I did this time. There are many things that I have learnt in just a couple of weeks since making it that would have helped make it even better.
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